Dynamics AX & PowerPivot

October 21, 2009 03:59 by gjk

A big change in the Dynamics AX X++ development model

September 3, 2009 16:15 by gjk

I am watching this video from Channel 9 on how the Dynamics AX team are moving X++ into the .NET world. X++ is the bespoke Domain Specific Language (DSL) that is used within Dynamics AX or Axapta as it was when I was briefly introduced to it’s concepts. It had loads of really cool features that have since come back into the mainstream with the re-emergence of DSLs in general and LINQ. It was also very closely coupled to the underlying application that resulted in very robust code. The video is showing how they are moving the product out of the confines of the closed AX world and introducing the capability to work in the managed world of .NET so they can leverage the scalability of things like the Garbage Collector and widen the audience of developers. This shows me 2 things; The AX world is about to get much bigger and the design decisions taken many years ago for such a modular DSL are really about to pay off.

 

 

http://charliem.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/a-big-change-in-the-dynamics-ax-x-development-model/


AX user group Sept 14th to 18th

September 1, 2009 02:15 by gjk

Self-Service BI

August 30, 2009 20:37 by gjk

Dynamics AX 2009 provides standard reports, cubes and common integrations to move data between business intelligence tools quickly and seamlessly, so end users can easily interpret and present the data

 

 

 


AX Business Intelligence Overview

August 30, 2009 11:23 by gjk

Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a model driven approach for developing Business Intelligence (BI) applications that use the SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) development environment. Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services provides online analytical processing (OLAP) functionality.

An OLAP query – called a cube - is a set of related measures and dimensions that is used to analyze data.

Cubes can be used as data sources for:

  • Integrating menu item reports and Role centers.

  • Integrating Web parts in Role centers.

  • Browsing aggregated data that uses Microsoft Excel 2007.


Walkthrough: Creating a Cube

August 30, 2009 10:40 by gjk

From MSDN

 

In this walkthrough, you will create a cube that will enable you to analyze customer invoice data from Microsoft Dynamics AX. You will use the Business Intelligence (BI) properties in Microsoft Dynamics AX to specify measures and dimensions for the cube, and then generate a BI project so that you can work with the cube in SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS).

This walkthrough includes the following tasks:

  • Creating a perspective for a cube

  • Specifying cube measure and dimensions

  • Generating a BI project

  • Deploying a cube in a BI project

  • Browsing cube data

  • Creating the master company reporting currency dimension

A cube is defined by its measures and dimensions. You can specify measures and dimensions at different levels and on different objects in the Application Object Tree (AOT). A perspective is used to identify the tables that contain the measures and dimensions for a cube. For this walkthrough, you will create a perspective, and then define measures and dimensions on the tables in the perspective.

The following procedures explain how to create a perspective for the cube and how to add tables to the perspective.

To create a perspective for the cube

  1. In the AOT, expand the Data Dictionary node.

  2. Right-click the Perspectives node, and then click New Perspective.

  3. Select the node for the perspective.

  4. In the Properties sheet, specify the following property values.

    Property

    Value

    Name

    SalesAnalysis

    Label

    Sales Analysis

    Usage

    OLAP

    The Usage property determines how the perspective will be used. Setting the Usage property to OLAP indicates that the perspective will be used to generate a BI project for SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS).

To add tables to the perspective

  1. In the AOT, right-click the Data Dictionary node, and then click Open New Window.

  2. In the new window, expand the Tables node.

  3. Drag the following tables onto the Tables node for the SalesAnalysis perspective.

    • AddressCounty

    • AddressState

    • CustGroup

    • CustInvoiceJour

    • CustInvoiceTrans

    • CustTable

    • InventItemGroup

    • InventTable

  4. In the AOT, right-click the SalesAnalysis perspective, and then click Save.

Next, you will specify the measures and dimensions for the cube. To do this, you need to set BI properties on each table included in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

The following procedures explain how to set BI properties on each table.

To set BI properties on the AddressCounty table

  1. In the AOT, expand the node for the SalesAnalysis perspective, and then expand the Tables node.

  2. Select the AddressCounty table.

  3. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    IsLookup

    Yes

    AnalysisIdentifier

    Name

  4. In the AOT, expand the node for the AddressCounty table, expand the Fields node, and then select the Name field.

  5. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    County

    AnalysisUsage

    Attribute

To set BI properties on the AddressState table

  1. In the AOT, select the AddressState table in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

  2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    IsLookup

    Yes

    AnalysisIdentifier

    Name

  3. In the AOT, expand the node for the AddressState table, expand the Fields node, and then select the Name field.

  4. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    State

    AnalysisUsage

    Attribute

To set BI properties on the CustGroup table

  1. In the AOT, select the CustGroup table in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

  2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    SingularLabel

    Customer group

    IsLookup

    Yes

    AnalysisIdentifier

    Name

  3. In the AOT, expand the node for the CustGroup table, expand the Fields node, and then select the Name field.

  4. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    Name

    AnalysisUsage

    Attribute

To set BI properties on the CustInvoiceJour table

  1. In the AOT, select the CustInvoiceJour table in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

  2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    SingularLabel

    Customer invoice

    IsLookup

    No

    AnalysisDimensionType

    Transaction

  3. In the AOT, expand the node for the CustInvoiceJour table, expand the Fields node, and then select the DueDate field.

  4. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    Due date

    AnalysisUsage

    Attribute

  5. In the AOT, select the InvoiceAmount field.

  6. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisUsage

    Measure

    AnalysisDefaultTotal

    Sum

To set BI properties on the CustInvoiceTrans table

  1. In the AOT, select the node for the CustInvoiceTrans table in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

  2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    SingularLabel

    Customer invoice transaction

    IsLookup

    No

    AnalysisDimensionType

    Transaction

  3. In the AOT, expand the node for the CustInvoiceTrans table, expand the Fields node, and then select the InvoiceDate field.

  4. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    Invoice date

    AnalysisUsage

    Attribute

  5. In the AOT, select the LineAmount field.

  6. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    Revenue

    AnalysisUsage

    Measure

    AnalysisDefaultTotal

    Sum

  7. In the AOT, select the Qty field.

  8. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    Quantity

    AnalysisUsage

    Measure

    AnalysisDefaultTotal

    Sum

  9. In the AOT, select the Remain field.

  10. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    Remaining units

    AnalysisUsage

    Measure

    AnalysisDefaultTotal

    Sum

To set BI properties on the CustTable table

  1. In the AOT, select the CustTable table in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

  2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    IsLookup

    No

    AnalysisIdentifier

    Name

  3. In the AOT, expand the node for the CustTable table, expand the Fields node, and then select the Name field.

  4. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    Customer

    AnalysisUsage

    Attribute

To set BI properties on the InventItemGroup table

  1. In the AOT, select the node for the InventItemGroup table in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

  2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    IsLookup

    Yes

    AnalysisIdentifier

    Name

  3. In the AOT, expand the node for the InventItemGroup table, expand the Fields node, and then select the Name field.

  4. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    Item group

    AnalysisUsage

    Attribute

To set BI properties on the InventTable table

  1. In the AOT, select the InventTable table in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

  2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    IsLookup

    No

    AnalysisIdentifier

    ItemName

  3. In the AOT, expand the node for the InventTable table, expand the Fields node, and then select the ItemName field.

  4. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    Item

    AnalysisUsage

    Attribute

Next, you will deploy the cube the BI project. During deployment, cube objects are materialized and processed in an instance of SQL Server Analysis Services. When a cube is processed, data from the data source is extracted and mapped into the cube objects.

The following procedure explains how to deploy the cube in the SalesAnalysis project.

To deploy the cube

  • In Solution Explorer, right-click the SalesAnalysis project, and then click Deploy.

Now that the SalesAnalysis cube has been deployed and processed, you can browse the cube data within the BI project. The following procedure explains how to browse the cube data.

To browse the cube data

  1. In Visual Studio, open the BI project that you want to browse.

  2. In Solution Explorer, double-click SalesAnalysis.cube.

  3. Click the Browser tab.

  4. Expand the Measures node, expand Customer invoice node, right-click Invoice amount, and then click Add to Data Area.

  5. Expand the Time node, right-click the Year - Quarter - Month - Days hierarchy, and then click Add to Column Area.

  6. Expand the Customers - Invoice account node, right-click the Customers - Invoice account.Customer groups - Customers hierarchy node, and then click Add to Row Area.

  7. Browse the data. You can expand and collapse rows and columns in the table. You can modify the rows and columns that display in the table or add other dimensions to further slice the data.

In order to display the KPIs for a cube in a Business Overview Web part in Enterprise Portal, the cube must contain a Master Company Reporting Currency dimension. This dimension facilitates the reporting of financial measures in all the currencies used by the companies implemented in Microsoft Dynamics AX. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, this dimension is not automatically created for you when you generate a BI project for a cube. You must manually create this dimension.

In the following procedures, you will:

  • Create a mapping for the master company exchange rate

  • Create a Reporting Currency named query

  • Edit the Reporting Currency named query

  • Add the Master Company Reporting Currency dimension

  • Edit references to Reporting Currency in the SalesAnalysis cube

  • Edit references to Reporting Currency in the Master Company Reporting Currency dimension

  • Edit the code for currency conversion

  • Deploy the SalesAnalysis cube with the changes

To create a mapping for the Master Company Exchange Rate

  1. In Cube Designer, click the Dimension Usage tab.

  2. Click the ellipsis button (…) that appears at the intersection of the Time dimension and the Master company exchange rate measure group. The Define Relationship dialog box displays.

  3. For the Select relationship type field, select Regular.

  4. For the Granularity attribute field, select Days.

  5. In the relationship table, select DATEKEY in the Measure Group Columns column.

  6. Click OK.

To create the Reporting Currency named query

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click Sales Analysis.cube, and then click Add Business Intelligence. Business Intelligence Wizard displays.

  2. On the Welcome page, click Next.

  3. On the Choose Enhancement page, click Define currency conversion, and then click Next.

  4. On the Set Currency Conversion Options page, select the Master company exchange rate measure group, select Euro as a pivot currency, select US Dollar as a sample currency, and select n Euro per 1 US Dollars. Click Next.

  5. On the Select Members page, mark the checkboxes for the Invoice amount and Revenue measures in the Measures column, and then select Master end of day rate for both of those measures in the Exchange Rate Measures column. Click Next.

  6. On the Select Conversion Type page, select Many-to-many, and then click Next.

  7. On the Define Local Currency Reference page, select Attributes in the dimension table. In the list that displays, expand the Companynode, select Currency code, and then click Next.

  8. In the Specify Reporting Currencies page, select all currencies except Unknown, and then click Next.

  9. Click Finish to complete the wizard.

    This creates a new named query object called Reporting Currency in the data source view.

To edit the Reporting Currency named query

  1. In Solution Explorer, double-click SalesAnalysis located in the Data Source Views folder.

  2. In the Tables pane, right-click Reporting Currency, and then click Edit Named Query.

  3. In the Edit Named Query dialog box, replace the SQL query with the following query.

    SELECT RC.CURRENCYCODE, RC.ISOCURRENCYCODE, RC.CURRENCYNAME, RC.SYMBOL, DA.ISPIVOT
    FROM (SELECT CURRENCYCODE, ISOCURRENCYCODE, CURRENCYNAME, SYMBOL
      FROM (SELECT CURRENCYCODE, CURRENCYCODEISO AS ISOCURRENCYCODE, TXT AS CURRENCYNAME, SYMBOL
      FROM CURRENCY AS A) AS BICURRENCYDIMENSION
        WHERE (CURRENCYCODE IN
          (SELECT CASE WHEN UPPER(CURRENCYCODE) IS NULL THEN '' ELSE UPPER(CURRENCYCODE) END AS CURRENCYCODE
             FROM COMPANYINFO))) AS RC INNER JOIN
               (SELECT D.ID, D.NAME, D.ISVIRTUAL, (CASE WHEN C.CURRENCYCODE IS NULL THEN '' ELSE UPPER(C.CURRENCYCODE) END) 
             AS CURRENCYCODE, (CASE WHEN C.SECONDARYCURRENCYCODE IS NULL THEN '' ELSE UPPER(C.SECONDARYCURRENCYCODE) 
              END) AS SECONDARYCURRENCYCODE, (CASE WHEN
             (SELECT TOP 1 UPPER(EXCHANGERATECOMPANY) AS EXPR1
                FROM [DBO].BICONFIGURATION AS B) = UPPER(D .ID) THEN 0 ELSE 1 END) AS ISPIVOT
                FROM DATAAREA AS D LEFT OUTER JOIN
                COMPANYINFO AS C ON C.DATAAREAID = D.ID) AS DA ON RC.CURRENCYCODE = DA.CURRENCYCODE
    UNION
      SELECT DISTINCT N'Local' AS [Local 1], N'Local' AS Local, N'Local' AS [Local 3], N'Local' AS [Local 2], 1 AS [Local 4]
        FROM (SELECT     CURRENCYCODE, CURRENCYCODEISO AS ISOCURRENCYCODE, TXT AS CURRENCYNAME
        FROM CURRENCY AS A) AS BICURRENCYDIMENSION_1
  4. In Solution Explorer, double-click Reporting Currency.dim located in the Dimensions folder.

  5. Click the Dimension Structure tab if it is not already displayed.

  6. In the Attributes pane, select the Reporting Currency dimension.

  7. In the Properties window, type Master Company Reporting Currency for the Name property.

  8. Set the ErrorConfiguration property to (custom).

  9. Expand the ErrorConfiguration node, and then set the KeyNotFound and NullKeyNotAllowed properties to IgnoreError.

  10. Set the UnknownMember property to Visible.

  11. In the Attributes pane, select the Currency attribute.

  12. In the Properties window, click the ellipsis button (…) for the DefaultMember property, click No custom default, and then click OK.

  13. In the Data Source View pane within the Data Structure tab, select the ISPIVOT field from the Reporting Currency dimension and drag it to the Attributes pane.

  14. Select the ISPIVOT attribute in the Attributes pane.

  15. In the Properties window, set the AttributeHierarchyEnabled property to False and type Unpivot for the Name property.

  16. In the Attributes pane, select the Currency attribute.

  17. In the Properties window, set the OrderBy property to AttributeKey, and set the OrderByAttribute to Unpivot.

  18. In Solution Explorer, right-click Reporting Currency.dim, click Rename, and then type Master Company Reporting Currency.dim.

To add the Master Company Reporting Currency dimension

  1. In Solution Explorer, double-click SalesAnalysis.cube.

  2. Click the Dimension Usage tab.

  3. On the Dimension Usage toolbar, click Add Cube Dimension.

  4. Select Master Company Reporting Currency, and then click OK.

To edit references to Reporting Currency in the SalesAnalysis cube

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click SalesAnalysis.cube, and then click View Code.

  2. Locate the following code.

    <ID>Reporting Currency</ID> 

    <Name>Reporting Currency</Name> 

  3. Replace it with the following code.

    <ID>Master Company Reporting Currency</ID> 

    <Name>Master Company Reporting Currency</Name> 

  4. Locate the following code.

    <DimensionID>Reporting Currency</DimensionID> 

  5. Replace all instances with the following code.

    <DimensionID>Master Company Reporting Currency</DimensionID>

  6. Locate the following code.

    <CubeDimensionID>Reporting Currency</CubeDimensionID> 

  7. Replace all instances with the following code.

    <CubeDimensionID>Master Company Reporting Currency</CubeDimensionID>

  8. Save the changes and then close the file.

To edit references to Reporting Currency in the Master Company Reporting Currency dimension

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click Master Company Reporting Currency.dim, and then click View Code.

  2. Locate the following code.

    <ID>Reporting Currency</ID> 

  3. Replace it with the following code.

    <ID>Master Company Reporting Currency</ID> 

  4. Save the changes and then close the file.

To edit the code for currency conversion

  1. In Solution Explorer, double-click SalesAnalysis.cube to display Cube Designer.

  2. In Cube Designer, click the Calculations tab.

  3. On the toolbar, click Script View. The code that was generated for currency conversion displays.

  4. Replace the code for currency conversion with the following code.

    // <Currency conversion>
      Scope ( { Measures.[Invoice amount],  Measures.[Revenue]} );     
        Scope( Leaves([Time]),       
          Except([Master Company Reporting Currency].[Currency].[Currency].Members,[Master Company Reporting Currency].[Currency].[Local]),Leaves([Company]));       
            Scope({ Measures.[Invoice amount],  Measures.[Revenue]} );                       
              This = [Master Company Reporting Currency].[Currency].[Local] * (Measures.[Master end of day rate], StrToMember("[Currency].[Currency].&["+[Company].[Currency code].CurrentMember.Name+"]")) / (Measures.[Master end of day rate], LinkMember([Master Company Reporting Currency].[Currency].CurrentMember, [Currency].[Currency]));                        
            End Scope;            
         End Scope;                
      End Scope;  
    // </Currency conversion>

Now that you have created a perspective and specified the measures and dimensions for the cube, you will generate a BI project so that you can work with the cube in BIDS. After generating the BI project, you will view several of the cube objects that were generated.

The following procedure explains how to generate a B1 project.

To generate a BI project

  1. On the Microsoft Dynamics AX menu, point to Tools, point to Business Intelligence (BI) tools, and then click BI project generation options. The BI project generation options form displays.

  2. Click the General tab.

  3. In the Datasource type field, specify the type of database you are using.

  4. Select the Enable logging check box, and then specify a path and file name for the log file.

  5. Click the Time Dimensions tab.

  6. Select the Use the standard calendar check box, and specify start and end dates that are appropriate for the data that you are analyzing.

  7. Select the following check boxes in the Time periods list for the standard calendar.

    • Days

    • Year

    • Quarter

    • Month

  8. Click the Translations tab.

  9. Select the Create metadata translations check box, and then select the check box next to the following languages.

    • English (United States)

    • French (Standard)

  10. Click the Generate BI project button. The Generate a Business Intelligence project form displays.

  11. In the Folder field, specify a location for the project. You can click the folder icon to browse and select a folder.

  12. In the Project name field, type SalesAnalysis.

  13. Select the Open generated project check box. This indicates that the project is to be opened in BIDS after it is generated.

  14. Select the SalesAnalysis perspective. Be sure that this is the only perspective selected.

  15. Click OK. This generates a BI project and opens the BI project in BIDS.

To view cube objects in the generated project

  1. In Visual Studio, open Solution Explorer.

  2. Expand the Data Sources node. A data source that connects to the Microsoft Dynamics AX OLTP database displays.

    A data source is used to source and refresh cube data.

  3. Expand the Data Source Views node, and then double-click SalesAnalysis.

    A data source view provides a unified view of the tables and their relationships.

  4. In Solution Explorer, expand the Cubes node, and then double-click SalesAnalysis.cube to display Cube Designer.

    Cube Designer allows you to view and edit various properties of a cube. There are several tabs that display different views of the cube. For example, click the Dimension Usage tab to display the mappings between dimensions and measure groups. Click the Translations tab to view the translations that exist for the cube. The SalesAnalysis cube has two translations, English (United States) and French (France).

  5. In Solution Explorer, expand the Dimensions node to view the dimensions for the cube.

  6. Double-click the Customers dimension.

    The Customers dimension is comprised of attributes from several tables, including CustTable, CustGroup, AddressState, andAddressCounty. Hierarchies were created based on the relationships between these tables.

  7. In Solution Explorer, double-click the Items dimension.

    The Items dimension is comprised of attributes from several tables, including InventTable, InventItemGroup, and AddressState. Hierarchies were created based on the relationships between these tables.

  8. In Solution Explorer, double-click the Time dimension.

    The Time dimension includes attributes for all possible levels. The hierarchies that exist in the Time dimension depend upon the hierarchy levels that were selected when specifying project generation options in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

  9. Review the remaining dimensions for the cube.

    The Company, Cost Center, Department,and Purpose system dimensions are automatically added to the generated cube.

 

To complete this walkthrough, you will need:

  • Microsoft Dynamics AX with sample data

  • This walkthrough uses the following tables: AddressCounty, AddressState, CustInvoiceJour, CustInvoiceTrans, CustGroup,CustTable, InventTable and InventItemGroup. In order to browse data in the cube, these tables must be populated with data.

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005

  • SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio

  • Analysis Services extensions for Microsoft Dynamics AX

  • Completion of setup steps for BI (see "Business intelligence and reporting setup" in the System and Application Setup documentation)

 


Defining Cubes in Microsoft Dynamics AX

August 30, 2009 10:28 by gjk

From MSDN:

A cube is defined by its measures and dimensions. You can specify measures and dimensions at different levels and on different objects in the Application Object Tree (AOT) using the Business Intelligence properties that appear in the Properties sheet. A perspective is used to identify the tables that contain the measures and dimensions for a cube. This section describes how to specify measures and dimensions for a cube in Microsoft Dynamics AX and how to create a perspective for a cube.

Before you specify a measure, you must decide the scope of the measure and where it should be defined. In order to specify a measure on a table field in a perspective, you must have already created the perspective. For more information, see How to: Create a Perspective for a Cube.

The following procedure explains how to specify a measure for a cube.

To specify a measure for a cube

  1. In the AOT, select the extended data type or the table field to use to define the measure.

  2. In the Properties sheet, specify values for the following properties.

    Property

    Value

    AnalysisLabel

    A label for the measure. Only specify a label when the label supplied for the Label property is not appropriate.

    AnalysisUsage

    Measure

    AnalysisDefautTotal

    An aggregate function used to aggregate the measure values.

    If you specify a measure on an extended data type, any table field that references the extended data type and has its AnalysisUsage property set to Auto will be a measure. You can override the settings for the measure on a table field. For example, you may want to change the settings so that the table field is not a measure or specify a different aggregate function for the table field. For a detailed description of the BI properties and their options, see Business Intelligence Properties.

    To specify a table field as an attribute on a table dimension

    1. In the AOT, expand the Data Dictionary node.

    2. Do one of the following:

      • To specify a dimension attribute directly on a table field, expand the Tables node, expand the node for the table, expand the Fields node, right-click the table field that you want to specify as a dimension attribute, and then click Properties.

      • To specify a dimension attribute on a table field in a perspective, expand the Perspectives node, expand the node for the perspective, expand the Tables node, expand the node for the table, expand the Fields node, right-click the table field that you want to specify as a dimension attribute, and then click Properties.

    3. In the Properties sheet, specify the following properties.

      Property

      Value

      AnalysisUsage

      Attribute

      AnalysisLabel

      A label for the measure. Only specify a label for this property when the label supplied for the Label property is not appropriate.

    For a detailed description of the Business Intelligence properties and their options, see Business Intelligence Properties.

    Now that the dimension is created, you can add it to a perspective for a cube. For more information, see How to: Create a Perspective for a Cube.

 


Business Intelligence in Dynamics AX 2009

June 25, 2009 10:00 by gjk

From Brandon George

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008

Business Intelligence in Dynamics AX 2009 (Part I)

 

When you think of Business Intelligence in Dynamics AX 2009, what comes to mind? There will actually be several ways to get data, reports, and information feeds that help build one's business intelligence from their given Dynamics AX 2009 instance. What I want to cover in this post, is what Microsoft is calling Business Intelligence in Dynamics AX 2009, talk about Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Application and working with Dynamics AX 2009, as well as using Applications like Excel for retrieving data from Dynamics AX 2009 and creating Ad Hoc Business intelligence reports and information applications.

First lets start with what Microsoft is calling Business intelligence in Dynamics AX 2009. In order to do that, let me point out the MSDN home for Business Intelligence in Dynamics AX 2009:

MSDN: Dynamics AX 2009, Business Intelligence

In looking over this, it's actually similar to Dynamics AX 4.0, in what is considered to be Business Intelligence, which revolves around OLAP cubes, creating OLAP cubes, and working with / processing OLAP cubes from Dynamics AX that can be defined and created from the Transactional Data in your Dynamics AX instance. 

With that said, Microsoft has done a Lot under the covers to SQL Server 2008, specially in regard to OLAP and OLAP services, processing engine, etc. So this new benefits can now be used in Dynamics AX 2009. There is a good write up on what all is new and improved in SQL Server 2008, Analysis Services located here: Cube Squared: Migrating Analysis Services to the SQL Server 2008 Platform, Part 1 of 2

So in Dynamics AX 2009, there are improvements already in what is referred to as Business Intelligence, and for sure you should be installing Any new Dynamics AX 2009 instance on SQL Server 2008, so if you do, then you will see a lot more benefits and improvements to Analysis Services and Business Intelligence together!

Next post I will talk about Microsoft Office PerformancePoint and using that with Dynamics AX 2009 to create and define Business Intelligence Processes! Check back soon!


AX 2009 and the Enterprise Portal

September 25, 2008 12:15 by gjk

Dynmics AX - ZD view

June 2, 2008 19:18 by gjk

June 2nd, 2008 Dynamics AX 2009: The 'Halo' for Microsoft's app platform Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:19 am Categories: App Compatibility, Channel, Corporate strategy, Database, Development tools... Tags: ERP, Microsoft Corp., AX 2009, ERP App, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)... 4 TalkBacks PrintEmailThumbs UpThumbs Down+3 5 Microsoft began rolling out to customers on June 2 the latest version of its high-end ERP application, Dynamics AX 2009. The latest Axapta release (also known as AX 5.0) has lots of new bells and whistles: A compliance center dashboard that displays all kinds of key performance indicators (KPIs) in a single view; time-zone support; integration with the (stil-not-yet-shipping) SQL Server 2008 database release. But what caught my eye most about AX 2009 when Microsoft recently demo’d it for me was how it is the showcase app for so many different Microsoft technologies. “What Halo is for Xbox, we are for Microsoft’s application platform,” said Kees Hertogh, Director of Product Management for Dynamics AX. AX 2009 includes and/or makes use of every Microsoft technology but the kitchen sink: Like the rest of Microsoft’s Dynamics family, AX now incorporates the Office look-and-feel throughout the application and sports an Office-Ribbon-style action pane. Because it embeds the Windows Workflow engine inside the app, it includes more built-in business-process automation and allows admins to set rules and policies that apply to different modules. Business intelligence, Microsoft-style, is part of the app; AX 2009 embeds SQL Server OLAP cubes, and ships with a set of predefined KPIs. The new ERP app has a back-and-forth button and a breadcrumb bar that would be familiar to anyone who has used Internet Explorer. Support for Office Unified Communications Server is integrated directly into the product, so that users will be able to integrate their PBX and VOIP systems directly with the back-end ERP system. Ditto with Microsoft SharePoint Server, BizTalk Server and Project Server — not surprisingly, integration hooks are build in. AX publishes Web services, such as credit-card processing and shipment via UPS. And other vendors/users can create custom Web services that can be consumed by AX 2009. “We use Microsoft’s SOA technologies to expose and consume these services,” Hertogh said. Microsoft has been encouraging developers to integrate its Office Ribbon, its Windows Workflow technology and support for its Excel Services technology into their own custom line-of-business apps. Relatively few have done so, to date — for lack of tools, fear of becoming too locked into Microsoft’s stack and/or other reasons. Do you think third-party app vendors will start incorporating more Microsoft technologies into their on-premise and/or Web apps, moving forward? Why or why not? Update: Brandon George, Senior Technical Architect with Sunrise Technologies — who has posted a good Q&A with a couple of key Dynamics execs — said he thinks app vendors who “want to stay or become more profitable” would be well served by incorporating more of the Microsoft stack. Agree?